National City Stock Yards

To the casual visitor, the yards are a nightmare of sounds ranging from angry bellows, mournful lowings, and the contralto squeals of condemned pigs. Above the tumult rises the sharp cries of cattlemen as they shunt the droves into run-ways and chutes. The air is heavy with dust and charged with the earthy odor of the barnyard. It is at once remindful of the farm, the cowboy, and the far West.

When opened in 1874, the stockyards were heralded as the largest in the country. They have since been surpassed by other yards, but today they still ranks as the largest horse and mule market in the United States. The stockyards has a daily capacity for 5,000 horses and mules, 25,000 sheep, 25,000 cattle, and 50,000 pigs. Hundreds of cattle churn in the endless rows and of pens, waiting to be shipped to eastern markets, or to be slaughtered at one of the several large packing companies nearby.
Two of the largest packing companies Swift & Co. and Armour & Co., employ special guides to conduct tourists through the plants. Swift & Co. hours: 9:30 a.m., 10:30 a.m., l:30 p.m., and 2:30 p.m. Armour & Co. hours:. 9:00 a.m., 10:30 a.m., 11:00 a.m., 1:00 p.m., and 2:00 p.m.

The tour conducted by Swift & Co. approximating that of Amour & Co., begins in the beef-boning department and then moves on to the beef-cooling department where some 5,000 sides of beef are suspended at a room temperature of 45�. Next, mounting two flights of stairs, the visitor is conducted across the roof of the refrigeration room to the "killing floor", where the cattle are dispatched by a blow of a five-pound sledge, decapitated, disembowled, and partially skinned. Passing from the "killing floor", the tour is concluded after and inspection of the sheep-cleaning department, the wrapping department, the bacon department, the smokehouse, and the loading dock. The tour lasts one hour.